Sic Erat In Fatis
by SecretAgentSyd
Summary: She continually tried to tell herself that this was going to be like many of the dinners they'd shared before, but a little voice in the back of her head would not cease to tell her otherwise.


**Sic Erat In Fatis**   
_So it was Fated  
_  
by **SecretAgentSyd  
Disclaimer: **I own nothing, sadly.  
**Rating: **A big ol' boring G.  
**Summary:** My very first MS fic! Bites nails nervously So don't kill me for trying and failing miserably. Anyway, as a shipper, you can pretty much figure out how I feel about "all things" and what happened between our favorite duo. But what I always wondered was... how did Scully get off Mulder's couch and into his bedroom?

* * *

**_Mulder:_ **_"I mean, how many different lives would we be leading if we made different choices. We... we don't know."   
**Scully: **"What if there was only one choice and all the other ones were wrong? And there were signs along the way to pay attention to."   
**Mulder: **"Mmm. And all the... choices would then lead to this very moment. One wrong turn, and... we wouldn't be sitting here together. Well, that says a lot. That says a lot, a lot, a lot. That's probably more than we should be getting into at this late hour."_

_--"all things," 7x17_

* * *

She awoke slowly, allowing herself to gradually take in her surroundings. She lay sprawled about a couch, a blanket draped around her, her feet carefully propped up on the coffee table. As confused as she was, there was one thing of which Dana Scully was very much aware.  
  
This was _not_ her apartment.  
  
A crimson blush quickly engulfed her cheeks, and although she seemed to be alone, she momentarily buried her face in the blanket--a girlish reaction, at best. Being here was more than enough to embarrass her, but coupled with the fact that she'd fallen asleep, she felt positively motified.   
  
She removed her legs from the coffee table, letting them drop onto the cold, wooden floor, the initial contact sending a shiver through her spine. It took her a moment to compose herself, but she stood upright as soon as possible, then leaned over to glace at the clock.  
  
The time, 6:47 P.M., didn't quite mean too much to her, considering she couldn't remember when she'd first arrived at his apartment. Had she been dozing a mere hour, or an entire afternoon? She wracked her brain for an answer of some sort, but she ended up only with more questions.  
  
Where was he, anyway?  
  
Her eyes scoured the apartment for a note of some sort, or any clue that might perhaps reveal his location. She searched the living room, kitchen, even wandered into the bathroom. Each room came up empty, and she considered stepping into the bedroom. Apparently, he had one now. He spoke once of a waterbed, back when she thought his bedroom was still devoted to file storage, and she wondered idly if he still had it. It did pop, he said, and anyway, waterbeds weren't allowed in his complex.  
  
Not that he was ever one to follow the rules.  
  
She took a deep breath, chiding herself for her strange influx of emotions. It was only a room, she attempted to tell herself. She wondered if it would be an invasion of privacy to take a quick peek. After all, what if, for some strange reason only explainable by Mulder himself, he'd left a note for her in there?  
  
Her hand rested gently on the doorknob of the bedroom, when suddenly, she heard another knob turn. She spun around nervously, her eyes darting to the front door, then down to the floor. She studied her wiggling toes, hoping he'd think that was what she'd been doing the entire time.  
  
"Hey," he said softly, striding into his apartment. She glanced up at him, although still embarrassed by the ridiculous situation, and she saw a warm smile form on his lips. She tried desperately to bite back her own grin, but such an act was futile.  
  
"Hi."   
  
The word came out quickly, subconsciously, involuntarily. It was the only reply she could muster, and her traitorous voice made her sound like she was seventeen all over again. Part of her was tempted to pinch herself, because this situation was beginning to feel slightly similar to a nightmare.  
  
"I was just..." again, betrayed by her own vocal chords, her voice quietly trailed off. She gestured towards the front door, as if to signal that she'd been preparing to leave.  
  
He regarded her silently, a pained expression crossing his face. "You sure you don't want to join me?"  
  
She paused, not sure what he'd meant by his statement. The look on her face must have communicated this to him, because he began to speak again.  
  
"For dinner," he clarified, holding up his left hand, which clutched onto a small, plastic bag. "You fell asleep about two hours ago, and so I hung around here a bit. About half an hour ago I got pretty hungry, decided to go out and get us some Chinese." She nodded, taking in what he had said, a little surprised and even more so admonished that she'd been sleeping here two whole hours.   
  
"I mean, I got tofu and everything," he continued, raising one eyebrow suggestively. "I know how much you love your non-fat soybean concoctions."  
  
Her eyes remained focused on him; she regarded his every move, still unsure as to what to do. She watched as he tossed the bag onto his shabby dining room table; she watched as he pointed to the food.   
  
"You gonna help me eat this or what?"  
  
She continually tried to tell herself that this was going to be like many of the dinners they'd shared before, but a little voice in the back of her head would not cease to tell her otherwise.

* * *

An entire canister of tofu later, not to mention the rice and lo mein and chicken they consumed, all that remained of their Chinese dinner were two fortune cookies.   
  
He reached out and grabbed one, then pushed the other towards her. With the grin of a little child, he broke his dessert in half. She watched him throughout the entire ordeal, as he hunted down the tiny piece of paper stuffed magically into every fortune cookie.  
  
"What does it say?" she inquired, peering over towards him as if she'd be able to read the little letters.  
  
He glanced up from the piece of paper to meet her gaze. When his eyes met hers, she almost felt overpowered, and she could barely keep her eyes locked with his. She was oddly grateful when his eyes returned to the paper.  
  
"It says, 'A pleasant surprise is in store for you.'" His grin grew wide and his tone suggestive; she even detected a slight eyebrow waggle. "Wonder what that means."  
  
"Oh, I don't know," she responded, playing with her own, unopened cookie. "Maybe Skinner will give you a raise?"  
  
"No, no," he told her, "that can't be it. That would never happen. Besides, I think it's got to be something... better." He paused momentarily before nodding towards her. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see. So, what's yours say?"   
  
"I haven't opened it," she replied, snapping the cookie in half. She held her left palm out in front of her, then picked out the piece of paper tucked inside the treat. She almost laughed aloud when she read her fortune.   
  
"Well?" he prodded. "It can't be that bad. I once had a fortune that said 'You will get a fortune.' Now that, that was bad."  
  
Chuckling, she waved her fortune in the air. "Ready?" she asked, and he nodded in response. "Well, mine..." she began, her voice soft and serious, "...mine says, 'Depart not from the path which Fate has you assigned.'"  
  
He nodded, obviously understanding the relevancy of the fortune to her day. "Makes you wonder if Budda himself works at Chen's, doesn't it, Dana?" he said laughingly, grinning madly at her. She was startled at the use of her first name, but she returned the smile nonetheless. Their quiet laughter filled the room, and for a moment, as their eyes met once more, time itself seemed suspended.  
  
It were as if she'd forgotten to breathe, or perhaps that was the problem--that she simply couldn't breathe at all. Her breath hitched when she finally found the ability to inhale, and she suddenly found herself covered in goosebumps. The whole while, they hadn't been able to tear themselves away from one another.  
  
Something in his hazel eyes was different, a sort of stunning gleam that she'd never seen before. If she had to bet on it, she would call it desire, but that just felt too strong of a word. And he wouldn't look at her that way; no, that wasn't how it worked, right?  
  
Seven years they'd spent together so far, an amount of time long enough for him to jokingly ask her once if she'd broken a mirror the day they'd met. No, she'd promised him, but she had broken one in that Florida funhouse, so maybe that had to do with something. He'd merely laughed and dropped his hand to the small of her back, guiding her out of the office.  
  
Throughout the years, they'd bonded in such a way paired-parents could only dream, forging an unbreakable friendship founded on the premises of trust. Trust No One was their team slogan, but the fine print read Except Each Other.   
  
Their friendship melded, somehow, some time, into something more... at least for her. She wasn't sure when it happened, or when she'd become conscious of it, but somewhere along the line, she'd fallen in love with him. She'd loved him all along, of course, as a partner and a friend, but she'd never really considered anything more.   
  
There was that boundary they'd silently drawn, neither daring enough to cross it and stand proudly on the other side. One false move, she knew, could destroy everything, and so she'd stayed as far from the boundary as humanly possible, coming close to running across it only twice--a virus-carrying bee had stopped her the first time, and the excuse that it was just New Year's had justified the second.   
  
But now, as he rose from his chair and moved closer towards her, his eyes still fixated upon her, she felt miles away from the border, safe on the forbidden side. Any doubts she had about her departure from her comfort-zone faded as her lips slowly came in contact with his.   
  
They quickly found each others hands, and he helped her stand from her chair. He broke the kiss reluctantly, and she could see his eyes searching hers for permission or confirmation, any sort of okay. She smiled up at him and communicated with her eyes exactly what he'd wanted to see.   
  
Fate leaves signs along the way to keep people on their respective paths. It's their duties to follow the signs, to stay on their roads, to end up where Fate wants them. She'd spent her whole life praying that she'd followed the signs correctly, constantly fretting that somewhere down the road, she'd gotten lost. There were times when she occassionally looked back, questioning the path upon which she currently traveled, wondering whether or not Fate really wanted her _here_, and if she should back-track and take an alternative route.   
  
She realized now that she hadn't ever made a single wrong turn.

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Thanks for reading! :D 


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